Beautiful Sky Tonite!

I thought I might find delight in the big bright sky today. Wheeling birds thru the window pane overlooking Guelph's St. George's Square ...stay tuned for the video!

Window View

6pm and it's snowing

The view out the window of my new apartment overlooking St. George's Square in downtown Guelph was pretty bleak today. So I've re-interpreted my image of it with the help of some digital editing effects.

the snow really stands out in this 3D cross-view

Posterizing pictures is something that comes easy for the Grade 5 and 6 students that I teach through the Focus on Nature program. It's a little harder for me! But I like this one.

Executive Director

I started my new job today as Executive Director of Focus on Nature, the environmental education group with whom I've taught nature photography in 25 classrooms of young students last year. My goal will be to raise that to 40 classes or more this year.

A couple of highlights of the day were seeing an article in the local newspaper titled "New Boss at Focus on Nature" and receiving a warm congratulations in the mail from Guelph's Mayor Karen Farbridge. And over 50 'likes' and comments on Facebook reminded me that I have a lot of support out there in the wider community too!

kids having fun with their cameras out in nature keeps me motivated

Bells & Belles

Gail & I had lunch today with my sons Daniel and Trevor at Jamie Kennedy's Gilead Café in Toronto. Good food and airy ambience. It was a chance to meet Trevor's new girlfriend Megan before he heads back to Montreal and his Master's program in Environmental Science at Concordia.

Simon, Gail, Daniel, Amanda, Trevor and Megan at 507 Queen East

My old office from 1984 to 1993

After lunch we headed over to Dan's girlfriend Amanda's apartment on Queen Street East which just so happens to be where I had my first office/studio for 9 years in the 1980s! It was so familiar - and beautifully decorated in a young and trendy way - but  somehow it seemed  smaller than I remember it.

The Galaxy Garden

The Galaxy Garden resides in the Paleaku Peace Sanctuary in Honaunau Hawaii

My friend Jon Lomberg, with whom I recently stayed in Hawaii, has designed and built something unique on our planet, a beautiful garden that reflects the scale and components of the Milky Way, our home galaxy.

The gold sphere represents a magnified Solar System

The Milky Way is so vast that all of the stars that we see with our naked eyes would reside on leaves only a few inches apart in the garden. Our sun and solar system would be but a few molecules wide.

Jon & Simon by the fountain representing the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way

The Galaxy Garden also gives a measure of the scale of our galactic neighbourhood. Andromeda, the galaxy next door would reside about a 1/2 mile away, the local Virgo super-cluster of galaxies would occupy 40 miles of the Hawaiian coast, and the known universe would roughly be the size of Planet Earth!

A 3D cross-view of the Galaxy Garden

Mantas

 I went snorkelling with manta rays last night! We floated on the surface and let these enormous but harmless creatures swim up to our lights and cameras. They swam very close letting their huge mouths and bellies slide by us as they scooped up the plankton attracted to the lights.

Kona Snow

Coffee tree in bloom

Today the coffee trees here on the Kona coast of Hawaii have erupted in white blossoms, a yearly phenomenon the locals call Kona snow. It's a beautiful sight and everywhere the air is filled with the sweet scent of jasmine, of which the coffee plant is a member.

Due to the mild climate and rich volcanic soils, Kona coffee is highly prized. I'll be sure to bring some beans home with me!

Kapoho Tidal Pools

Convict Tang in the coral gardens

The Kapoho Tidal Pools on the Puna Coast of Hawaii have the best snorkelling I have ever experienced. The waters are shallow and crystal clear, the corals are huge and colourful and the tropical fish are plentiful and approachable.

Moorish Idols

 Because the waters are shallow I'd recommend wearing an extra "skin" or Lycra body suit. I didn't and paid the price with a few scratches on my arms and legs.

Unicorn Fish

Be sure to take along an underwater camera that shoots video. These images are stills that I made from the HD video I shot.

Line Butterfly Fish

Lava Flows

 Yesterday I hiked out to the place in Hawaii where lava flows into the sea.  At first, in daylight, there's not much to see. Just billowing steam with hints of red.  But as night falls the multiple entry points reveal themselves and put on quite a show!

 The liquid lava oozes slowly downhill, flowing effortlessly across the previous flow that may have been laid down only hours before.

Seeing new land being created and feeling its furnace-like heat is an experience I won't soon forget.

Swimming with Wild Dolphins

 Aloha from the Big Island! Gail & I are visiting friends Jon & Sharona Lomberg this week at their home on the Kona Coast. The calm blue waters are home to spinner dolphins who come to rest during the day in the quiet shallow bays.

 They are called spinners because of their spinning leaps into the air which I watched from the shore. Soon I and a few other curious onlookers were in the water and swimming beside them!

These masters of the sea are not shy, in fact they're quite playful, but this is their time to rest and sleep. Since they still need to rise to the surface to breathe, they let each hemisphere of their brain sleep alternately.

If you should one day find yourself swimming among dolphins, please respect them by keeping your distance. Don't swim at them. Let them swim to you.

A Photo Assignment

As part of our Focus on Nature Volunteer Appreciation party yesterday, Trina Koster gave us an outdoor photo assignment: to choose one spot and, without moving, shoot as many different views from that spot as we like. Fun! Here are a few of my images from that 10-minute exercise. Click on a picture to see as a slide show.

 

Winter Walk

Grey squirrels are showing their winter colours

New growth: a skunk cabbage melts the snow around it

White breasted nuthatch

Mallards are sporting their mating plumage

a muskrat in his sleek winter fur

Gail & I went for a winter walk today and enjoyed the wildlife around us. The warmth of the afternoon sun seemed to bring out the active beauty of nature.

The Newburgh Academy

The Academy, January 1st, 2013, in 3D anaglyph

Gail & I welcomed in the New Year here at the old high school in Newburgh Ontario, called the Academy, by ringing the school bell up in the cuppola at midnight with friends Les Jones & Judy Rauliuk. This beautiful limestone building, erected in 1853, was gutted by fire and rebuilt in 1872.

Les & Judy have preserved much of the history of the place with old books, desks and school photographs decorating the hallways. The school motto Labor Omnia Vincit was still respected when it eventually closed its doors in 1956.

Use a pair of red/blue 3D glasses to see the image in depth.

Big Snow

garden table with new snow

We awoke yesterday to a big fresh snowfall, the first in almost two years around here. Freshly fallen snow is transformative, not only of the landscape but also of the mind. It awakens a younger me, the Simon that used to spend hours playing outdoors making tunnels and forts as a boy in Ottawa. And the changed and simplified appearance of everything blanketed in snow inevitably encourages the artist in me to grab my camera and get out to enjoy it while it lasts.

The Hobo of Spencer Gorge

This week I hiked into Spencer Gorge to meet Marty, the resident hobo.  Marty,  a self-declared hobo, who collects bottles and cans for a living around Dundas Ontario, camps out at his "Cuddy Shack" deep in the woods.

I helped him carry wood and water up from the stream as he told me about the wildlife he observes, and the historical artifacts he has found. He even found a body once.



The view is beautiful, the shack is warm and the Christmas tree outside is decorated. Merry Christmas Marty!